According to Philip Greene, author of To Have and Have Another, where did Hemingway most likely drink his Mojitos?
a) El Floridita
b) La Bodeguita del Medio
c) The Cuban Place
d) Hemingway didn’t drink Mojitos
It was a question that many quickly answered: La Bodeguita del Medio. They obviously knew the famous quote on the walls of La Bodeguita del Medio, a bar in Cuba, that says: “My mojito in La Bodeguita, My daiquiri in El Floridita.” It’s signed by one Ernest Hemingway.
That’s fair enough, but that’s the wrong answer.
And author Philip Greene can tell you why if you read his piece on Eater today, in which he says that if Hemingway drank something, “he generally wrote about it, somewhere. Not so with the Mojito. In fact, I’ve not yet encountered a single reference to either the drink, or the Bodeguita, in all of my research, which spans about 20 years.”
Which is not to malign the Mojito — it’s a damn fine drink — it was just not up Papa’s alley. Click here to head to Eater to read the full account of the myth behind the man and his relationship with the drink.